Searchable Database, Tauber Institute for Global Operations, University of Michigan

Team Project Summaries. Database of Past Project Summaries: Search for Tauber team project summaries from prior years by Industry or Solution: Product Portfolio and Supply Chain Optimization. The team worked with 3M’s Construction and Home Improvement Markets (CHIM) Division evaluate root causes to improve protective eyewear products. The team identified opportunities to improve service, reduce inventory costs, improve product mix, improve supply chain efficiency, and standardize supply chain decision making process. Identifying Opportunities for the Seller Experience. The Tauber team performed an in-depth study of the complex supply chain to identify opportunities for internal improvements that can be applied to the Seller reimbursement policies. Amazon Robotics Stow Error Reduction. The Tauber team identified significant inputs to slow error introduction leading to an annual cost savings projected at $1.6M at TPA1 alone and $14.4M across the Amazon Robotics Sortable Network. Scaling Flow Surface Preparation and Growing the Market for Ultra-High Pressure Waterjets. The Tauber team created a detailed path for the company to better attach and expand the addressable market for water-based surface preparation addressing the company's goal to grow from $35MM to $70MM over the next 2-3 years through organic growth and acquisition. Market Entry Strategy for High Pressure Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Ends. The Tauber team created a business plan for growing the fluid end and component business to $100 million a year in revenue by benchmarking current competitors and their corresponding product offerings, developing a competitive business model, and formulating a go-to-market strategy around the optimum sales, service, and supply chain for Serva. Strategic Assessment of Food Industry Applications to Waterjet Technologies. Optimizing Information Flow in a Composite Smart Factory. The Tauber team developed an “Operations Dashboard” concept that helps key stakeholders make quick decisions and predict problems before they arise, thus reducing cycle time at key bottleneck processes by 20%, eliminating the need to purchase additional manufacturing capacity, and projecting to save over half million dollars per year increasing an additional capacity of 10,000 engineering hours for value-added projects. Carbon Fiber Recycling Strategy to Achieve Zero Waste-to-Landfill. The Tauber team successfully created and piloted a plan to enable the new 777X Composite Wing Center to become a zero waste-to-landfill production facility. Enabling a Low Cost & Scalable Component Repair Supply Chain. The Tauber team successfully designed and piloted a new systematic R&O approach focusing on a single Gold Care 787 part. BDS 777X Paint Process Optimization. The Tauber team conducted in-depth business-case analysis leading to saving Boeing $22.4M over the fist five years of implementation. Strategic Evaluation of the Pipacicaba Foundry. The Tauber team's deliverables included measured cost & technical competitiveness, i mproved factory utilization, r eviewed alternatives and recommended direction for the longer term strategy, and m anufacturing competitiveness for the future. Global Inventory Management. The Tauber team deliverables include: map out the inventory value chain at each location, benchmark driving factors of inventory turns & identify root causes of high stock level at each location, derive an optimum inventory turn and supply chain costs for identified RU, and recommend a forward path to achieve the optimized turn including inventory Upstream Supply Chain and Downstream to OEM customer. Strategies for Dramatic Inventory Turn Improvement at a Newly Acquired Plant. The Tauber team developed an optimal logistics strategy for plants in Oberboihingen, Germany and Oroszlany, Hungary, identified the floor space and inventory value needs of the logistics strategy, developed an implementation plan for the logistics strategy, and began implementation in trial areas. Reducing Time to Commercialize Existing Products on New Applications. The BorgWarner Thermal team proposed a solution to accelerate the time to commercialize existing products on new applications to customers. The team identifed the best practices from 5 technical centers and recommend a global standardized process for application engineering. Strategic Insourceing of Maintenance, Repair, and Operations Inventory. The Tauber team developed a course of action for the insourcing of MRO material procurement and management at two plants to reduce costs and improve operations. The team cleansed and migrated MRO data to the BorgWarner SAP system, create and map procedures for all inventory management processes, test the processes in SAP, and establish new vendors to handle the MRO demand previously met by the third-party. Preventing the Mixing of Small Parts. The Tauber team proposed a global solution to control material flow of similar, small components to prevent quality defects. The team created a cost-efficient implementation strategy to be deployed across Turbo System’s 10 production facilities, resulting in 100% control and traceability of components and saved up to $10.61 million annually. Expanding Service Offerings at Optifreight Logistics. The Tauber team assessed the market trends, customer pain points and evaluated the service needs of the target customers, and developed a comprehensive service model that offers value added and cost effective solutions. Exploring Innovation in the Factory Through 3D Printing. The Tauber team developed a strategy for how Cisco can incorporate the disruptive technology of additive manufacturing into its design and manufacturing processes. The benefits are projected to save $4M in capital expenses annually. Reduce Rework and Increase Efficiency in End-to-End Commercialization Process. The Tauber team completed a value-stream map of the end-to-end commercialization process. Reducing Energy Costs for Residents of Michigan. The Tauber team developed a Value Stream Map of the fuel process with Pareto Analysis of issues causing high overall process costs due to fuel prices or unit efficiency; developed a project plan for recommendations, including a cost estimated implementation timeline; implemented changes when appropriate while developing final recommendations; and reported detailing current state findings and future state recommendations with ROI’s and timelines for major projects. Simulation of Material Handling Operations for Labor Requirements Calculation. The Tauber team studied the material handling operation inside a final assembly shop to identify block and starve conditions. The use of simulation could capture the stochastic nature of the manufacturing system supporting an accurate calculation and allocation of labor resources that could lead to $1.6 million in potential savings. Corporate Desruption Through Utilization of Additive Manufacturing in the NPI Cycle and the Resulting Impact on GE Aviation's Business Model. The Tauber team re-mapped the design and development process with an objective to deliver more differentiated product to the market sooner under a cost constrained environment. This included supply chain plant level business plans and engineering organization strategies and execution plans to target and realize the greatest opportunities within the shortest timeline. The Final Countdown: Aligning Supply and Demand for a Better Build Out. The Tauber team analyzed the historic market ordering trends on the Cadillac SRX to reduce options and associated part complexity and subsequently material obsolescence cost at the end of the model build out. They formulated a model to repeat this process to capture savings for future model build outs projected to save GM $15.4M annually across its supply chain. Restructuring the Value Chain for North America Commercial Markets. The Tauber team developed a current state mapping of value stream highlighting largest constraints; developed an “unconstrained” model to understand the value of finding solutions to barriers identified; finalized output prioritizing implementation of the proposed solutions, bridging current state to a best in class model. They included estimated values of success through potential range of outcomes, key drivers to the success or failure of the project, and associated risk mitigation strategy to improve likelihood of success upon implementation. Internal Logistics Optimization or Guardian Glass. The Tauber team provided a solution for identifying and replicating the best practices in the warehouse and distribution network for Guardian flat glass division. The solution also provided a data driven objective methodology for Guardian to select and prioritize its capital investment over the next 3-5 years. Creating Capacity Visibility to Say Yes to New Business. The Tauber team developed a capacity planning solution, providing visibility on current and future capacity of plants to Kostal business teams. Pricing Strategies for an Infrastructure-As-A-Service Cloud Market. The Tauber team conducted a thorough mapping of the current value stream for the Microsoft Azure service, particularly as it pertains to the Compute and Storage units; future state mapping of the value stream, with an emphasis on optimizing for real-time feedback on datacenter capacity and efficient and repeatable processes for instant price changes on the Azure commerce platform; and included a financial understanding of the implications of such price changes. Increasing Sales Promotion Efficacy for Worldwide Markets. The Tauber team created a customer heatmap for special pricing and offers (including ROI, Incremental Unit Volume, and Gap Analysis); Prioritized/De-Prioritized decision matrix to help drive decisions on investment; mapped a customer decision map on purchase preference; and created an idea generation on unique go to market offers (opex bundle (financing hardware with bundled software, etc.). Expected incremental revenue for the Surface Commercial channel is approximately $18.3M per year.